Fiona's Find

To Fiona the Adirondack cabin looked plain old with its covered porch and big front door with black hinges. Discolored pine needles covered the roof. She stood; arms crossed, and stared at it in the late afternoon light. So this is where they’d be staying for the next two weeks, huh?
“Like it?” asked Fiona’s Dad who came up behind her, loaded with luggage.
“It looks ancient,” replied Fiona.
“It was built back in 1920.”
“Yikes!” said Fiona. “Maybe it’s haunted!”
“Race you inside!” Chloe, Fiona’s seven-year-old sister, charged past her going for the porch.
“I get the biggest bed!” Fiona tore after her, laughing.
Inside, the cabin smelled like fireplace ashes, pinecones and something else.
“Ewww . . . what’s that smell?” asked Chloe.
“Probably an old bear carcass.” Mom was behind them with sleeping bags. “Wow, this place needs some elbow grease!”
Uh oh. Fiona didn’t like the sound of that! She knew the equation: Kids + elbow grease = work.
Mom tossed them each a sleeping bag. “In there,” she said, pointing to their cabin bedroom.
Fiona put her sleeping bag on the sagging mattress. Her nose twitched. There was definitely a smell somewhere. She peeked behind the wooden nightstand.
“What are you doing?” Chloe asked, coming up behind her.
“Get Dad’s flashlight,” said Fiona. “Something’s behind this table.”
“Oh, ick!” said Chloe.
“Just go!” Fiona pulled the table out from wall.
“Okay, here’s the flashlight,” said Chloe, coming back, “but I’m outta here to see the lake!”
Fiona directed the light behind the table. Yup, there was a dead—something—on the floor with a piece of paper in its mouth. Must have been hungry to gnaw on a piece of paper, thought Fiona. She got a broom and dustpan and scooped up the dead animal, a red squirrel. The paper flipped onto the floor as she headed for the cabin door.
“Wait’ll you see the . . .” Chloe ran in and nearly bumping into Fiona. “Ahhhhh . . . yuck, ewwww . . .”
“Knock it off,” said Fiona. “It’s only a dead squirrel. Where’s Mom?”
“She’s helping Dad with the food,” answered Chloe. “Maybe she’ll cook that up.” She held her nose and giggled.
“Into the woods with that,” said her Mom, eyeing the squirrel and nodding toward the pine trees.
The squirrel went thud when it hit the ground and Fiona kicked some leaves over it. Back in the cabin she rolled her sleeping bag out and decided to test the bedsprings. On bounce three she noticed the paper on the floor and picked it up. It was folded into a neat square. There was a finger shaped grease spot on one corner. That’s what attracted the squirrel thought Fiona. She unfolded the paper and read:
Dear Diary
July 12, 1948

I lost my expensive tenth birthday locket today. I wore it when Peggy and I went walking. Mom didn’t want me to take it to camp. I’m such a dope! It had a silver chain with tiny flowers on the front and space inside for two pictures. We watched dragonflies skim the water by the heart shaped rock. I reached for one and saw the locket reflected in the water. Then we ran along the shore and cut through the woods up to the big white oak. Then, back at camp, it was gone! How will I tell Mom and Dad??
Sadly,
Mary Lee
PS: only three more days in camp, maybe I’ll find it.

Wow, Mary Lee’s diary was almost sixty years old! She was the same age as Fiona was now, ten, and maybe she slept on this same old bed.
“Settling in okay?” Dad stood in the doorway.
“You won’t believe this!” Fiona handed him the diary page.
“1948 huh?” said Dad. “The year your grandmother was born.”
“That squirrel died trying to eat it.”
“There were lots of camps for kids up here in those days. My Uncle Ted was here every summer.”
“I wonder if Mary ever found her locket,” said Fiona.
“We’ll probably never know,” said Dad. “We’ve got marshmallow for the campfire later!”
“Yum,” said Fiona. She folded the diary page, slipping it into her shorts pocket and went to check out the lake.
Chloe was almost up to her knees in the water. “Hey watch out for leeches!” yelled Fiona.
“Awwww . . . leeches . . .” squealed Chloe. “What’s a leech?”
Fiona laughed. “That thing on your leg.”
Chloe looked quickly at her leech-free legs. “Ha, ha,” she said, splashing at Fiona.
Fiona took her pink flip-flops off and waded out to Chloe. She pulled the folded paper from her pocket. “Hey, wanna see something?”
“Looks like an old candy wrapper.”
“Even better, an old diary page.”
“It is not!”
Fiona carefully unfolded it and read. Chloe’s eyes grew huge. “The heart shaped rock! I know where it is.”
“Where?” asked Fiona. Her eyes skimmed the shoreline as she returned the paper to her shorts pocket.
Chloe pulled at Fiona’s hand. “You can’t see it from here.”
They walked through the wet sand to a bend in the shoreline. A small grove of trees came almost down to the water and beyond that was a pile of boulders. The water swirled and gurgled through the rocks.
“You shouldn’t have come out here where nobody can see you,” said Fiona.
“Look!” said Chloe, ignoring her and pointing to one of the rocks. They waded closer to the rock shaped like a heart.
“Wow,” said Fiona. “I can’t believe it!” Something swooped past her right ear. A dragonfly! Now she knew it was the exact spot where Mary and Peggy sat so many years ago. “Let’s look for the big white oak,” she said.
“I haven’t got a clue about trees,” said Chloe.
“For our tree project in school we learned the white oak is the most common oak and the bark is a light gray.”
“Okay then, lets go,” said Chloe.
“This one’s a maple and here’s a pine,” said Fiona pointing out different trees as they walked away from the lake. “We should look for a tree with leaves like fat fingers.”
“It’s dark and shady under all these trees,” said Chloe. “Maybe we should go back.”
“But it’s like the walk Mary and Peggy took almost sixty years ago, Chloe. Isn’t that exciting?” Fiona stopped and spread her arms. “I love the pine smell, too!”
“What’s that?” asked Chloe tilting her head all the way back. A single ray of sunshine struck a big maple tree branch just below an old squirrel’s nest. “It’s shiny.”
Fiona shaded her eyes and looked up. There was something shiny dangling from the nest and Fiona’s heart skipped a beat. The silver chain? But how would it have gotten up a tree? “Chloe, can you tell what it is?”
“Nope, too far up.”
“Let’s try to make it fall out,” said Fiona. She found some throwing stones and lobbed one at the nest. Missed! Missed again! On the third try she hit the edge of the nest and the shiny object fell. Fiona scrambled to pick it up. “Oh,” she said, “it’s only a piece of string with glitter on it. Phooey!”
“Probably a little kid’s craft project,” said Chloe.
“Yeah, I guess,” said Fiona, disappointed. What made her think an old silver chain would be dangling from a squirrel’s nest sixty years after it had been lost?
“I’m getting cold,” said Chloe, hugging herself. “Race you back!” She took off through the trees.
Fiona didn’t feel like racing. She really wanted to find that locket! Mary Lee and Peggy had walked from the heart shaped rock to a big white oak and then back to the cabin. That oak must be close by. Was that campers trail over there? I’ll only walk a little way, she thought.
The woods got thicker as the path wore on. Fiona looked for big-fingered leaves and gray bark. She stepped over a fallen log and lost her flip-flop. Picking it up, she saw a big fat slug on it. Yuck!
Fiona looked back at the darkening trail and surrounding woods. Everything looked the same. Something darted through the leaves and Fiona jumped. “Ugh, I’d better get back to camp,” she said out loud.
I’ll just go back the way I came. Fiona knew that darkness fell quickly in the woods. Why hadn’t she raced Chloe back to the cabin instead of taking off all by herself? She felt exactly like Mary Lee, a dope! She stumbled and her flip-flop came off – again. This time the thong broke. Don’t panic, stay in one spot until Dad comes. But where? She was in the middle of a bunch of trees. She took a step and something crunched under her foot. It was an acorn. Oh! Was she near an oak tree? The light was faint, but with her hands in front of her she hop-walked until she found the tree—stump. This oak had been cut down and the stump was just big enough for her to sit on. If Chloe told Mom and Dad about their search for the locket, maybe they’d look for an oak tree. Fiona took a deep breath and tried not to be scared. A few stars popped out in the sky. She fiddled with her flip-flop and was able to poke the end of the thong back into its hole. At least she had two shoes now. Another critter scurried through the leaves. Looking in the direction of the sound Fiona noticed something in the trees, a flickering light. A campfire, the one her Dad was building! She stared hard at the light and realized a path led right through the trees to it.
Ten minutes later Fiona stumbled from the edge of the woods into the firelight.-
“Mom!” Chloe yelled. “She’s here!”
Fiona’s Mom ran and hugged her. “Your Dad was about to call the police.”
“I’m okay,” said Fiona, trembling. “I followed the light from the campfire.”
“I was hoping you’d see it,” said Dad, relieved as he came up beside her. Then, sternly, “You should have come back with Chloe.”
“I know, but I really wanted to find Mary Lee’s locket,” said Fiona. “I’m sorry.”
After many hugs, roasted marshmallows and a huge lecture from her parents, Fiona and Chloe collapsed, giggling, from a pillow fight in their room.
“I wonder why you only found one diary page,” said Chloe.

“Yeah, and where did that squirrel find it?” Fiona snapped her fingers and grabbed the flashlight from the bedside table. She shined the light along floorboards under the bed. A loose board! She wiggled her way in and pulled a second folded note from under the board.
“Chloe, look!” said Fiona. She held the note up triumphantly. Quickly unfolding it she read:
Dear Diary

July 13, 1948

Peggy and I retraced our steps and found my locket! I think the clasp was bad. It was caught in the weeds by the heart shaped rock. I’m so happy! I don’t want Mom or Dad to ever know I lost it, dearest diary, so I’m tearing out two of your pages. I’ll hide them somewhere in the cabin and maybe another girl will find them. We had buttered popcorn around the campfire tonight and I discovered Peggy can’t sing! That’s okay. We had fun!
Gladly,
Mary Lee

Fiona plopped onto the mattress. “So she did find it. I guess I was on a wild goose chase!”
“Yeah, but you found something too,” said Chloe.
“I did?”
Chloe held an imaginary magnifying glass. “You found out how not to be scared in the dark woods and two old pages from another girl’s diary, plus . . .”
“Plus . . .”said Fiona grabbing the imaginary magnifying glass and peering through it, “a secret trail through the woods!” She grinned at her sister.
“Ready to get clobbered again?” asked Chloe.
But Fiona already had her pillow raised. Chloe didn’t have a chance.

The End